Supply Chain Management Control Towers

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RAILFAN MYSTERIES

I have been confronted with several mysteries and have either solved them or am looking for solutions. Perhaps some of my readers can help.

One mystery that I have solved with the help of Bob Lowe and Len Gordy is the New York City subway that terminates at 34th Street.

There are basically two "D" lines in operation at this time in order to reduce the traffic across the being-repaired Manhattan Bridge. One stem comes from 205th Street in the Bronx and terminates at 34th St. and 6th Avenue. There is a shuttle down 6th Avenue to Grand Street.

The other "D" train starts at 57th St. and Seventh Avenue and travels the old Brighton line out to Coney Island.

The two truncated lines are like night and day. The former has old equipment that is grafiti-strewn, broken doors and unreliable. Needless to say, it traverses the Harlem-Grand Concourse line. By contrast, the southern line has the newest cars (R-68's) and enjoys a more middle-class clientel in its journey across Brooklyn.

Presumably this split line will continue until the Manhattan Bridge repairs are completed (whenever that is).

Once there were over 2000 coin lockers in Grand Central Terminal for checking
packages. What happened to them? This question was posed by a fan who accompanies me to the city and would really like to make use of them.

The ex-New Haven line from New Haven to Northampton Mass (Canal Line) is now operated by B&M (Springfield Terminal). The line is cut between Cheshire and New Haven with access only from the north. A bridge at Milldale CT is out of service and appears under repair but nothing has been happening to it for several months. South of this bridge is a B&M crane. How will Guilford get this crane out of there or do they plan to scrap in place?

Incidentally, the Metro-North police force is not solving too many mysteries these days as they are concentrating most of their efforts on enforcing the no smoking ban on their trains.

In 1948 when there was a coal strike, Harry Truman threatened to take over
the nation's railroads. Coal-burning locomotives were restricted to 60%
of their normal mileage. Even with diesel locomotives running around the
clock, rail traffic clogged up. The takeover didn't happen. It all involved
Harry Truman and John L. Lewis.

John L. Lewis was president of the United Mine Workers Union from 1920-1960.
He was a giant among American leaders in the first half of the twentieth
century, regularly advising presidents and challenging
America's corporate leaders. His work to organize the country's industrial
workers through the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the
1930s helped raise living standards for millions of American families.

Most impressive picture I have ever seen ANYWHERE is a 1940 poster of
John L. Lewis at the Carbondale (Pennsylvania) historic society.
The huge picture is at the top of a flight of stairs and IT IS AWSOME!
In 1940, Lewis had considered running for President.

(Picture above) Creation of the UMWA Welfare Fund, May 29, 1946.
Pictured seated from left are President Harry Truman, Secretary of the
Interior Julius Krug and Lewis.

See some of the grain elevators that once were a part of Buffalo's past.
The Buffalo Creek, or the "Crik" as it is often fondly referred to, was the
main railroad that served nearly all of Buffalo's grain elevators --
those not controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad and others.
The Buffalo Creek was founded in 1868 and was used as a local terminal
switching road completely within the city limits. It's main purpose was to
service waterfront industries, but mostly the grain elevators.

The Buffalo Creek was controlled by both the
Lehigh Valley and
Erie Railroads and offered connecting service with every major railroad
that serviced Buffalo. In this manner, grain was able to get in and out
of Buffalo by rail in quantities just as large as if by freighter.

4.6 miles. According to old Railroad Magazine rosters,
the line owned 2 EMC SWs numbered 40-41; an
EMD SW1 numbered 42; an Alco HH-660 numbered 43, and 7 Alco S-2s numbered 44-50.
A more complete roster of the Buffalo Creek

See this
ALCO-GE Model HH660 High Hood Switching Locomotive that started
work for the Buffalo Creek in 1940.

The former Buffalo Creek (BCK) mainline is now the CSX mainline
between CP437 and CP2, (between what was once Tower 47 and BC Tower
in pre-Conrail days. The Buffalo Creek RR bridge over the
Buffalo River is in use. The adjacent
Nickel Plate bridge is permanently raised.

When
Conrail was formed in 1976 the Buffalo Creek RR went along into it
with the EL and LV.

Here's busy section of Buffalo from the early 1930s. A small switching
engine from the Buffalo Creek Railroad is making a delivery to one of the
many warehouses. The Buffalo Creek was the workhorse for the grain industry
in Buffalo and was the liason between this section of the city and the
major railroads that delivered grain and other products to be
milled and/or stored in Buffalo's grain elevators. The General Mills elevator
can be seen in the upper left corner of this image.
The truck in the foreground is more than likely loaded with sacks of flour
or some other type of grain product.

A Terminal Switching Railroad serving waterfront and other industries,
for carload freight only. Operates 5.66 miles with a total trackage
of 34.22 miles and connects with all railroads in the City of Buffalo.

Its switching charges for road haul movements are collected by connecting
carriers for whom the Buffalo Creek performs the terminal switching service.

It receives from and delivers to all direct connections, without preference,
providing the same service to industries located on the Buffalo Creek, as
though located on the road of the line carrier.

The 1964 Guide, of course, listed Pennsylvania and New York Central as connections.

Before the redredging of the Welland Canal in the mid/late1950's,
the size of ships travelling between Lakes Ontario and Erie was limited.
Thus much of the marine traffic from the western lakes (Michigan, Huron and
Superior) got as far east as Buffalo on Lake Erie and then had to be
transshipped via rail. This is why Buffalo became a major port and had so
many railroads entering the city. With the redredging of the Welland Canal
(and the opening of the
St. Lawrence Seaway) Buffalo's importance as a port rapidly decreased.

The flour sack on the logo is a reference to one of the primary commodities
that was carried by the BCK. Grain is one of the major cargoes carried on the
Great Lakes (as well as iron ore, coal & limestone).
Much of this grain was offloaded and milled in Buffalo. At one
time Buffalo was home to the world's largest cereal packing plant
and was a center of the flour and feed milling industries.

Study reveals the facts of the matter to be a New York Central Troy--Albany local as the link. He notes that train 5611 shown in the full B&M timetable for the line, running just the last 16 miles to Troy, shown are Troy 8:22 and then the same times Troy--Albany. It requires a turn to the Rutland RR page to find this is Rutland train 56 from Rutland to Troy, running as B&M 5611 on the B&M's tracks.

B&M 59 passed just one sleeper to the NYC at Troy. The B&M parlor came off at Troy along with the coaches. Thus everyone other than sleeper passengers had to change at Troy to coaches on the NYC local, and then again at Albany. The Rutland train 56 (B&M 5611) was only coaches and ended at Troy, so their passengers changed too-- this is not made explicit in the Rutland timetable but is seen in the equipment list.

Turning to the NY Central itself... The Troy--Albany locals are listed in a little table printed sideways, just a list of depart times from each city with "approximate running time 25 minutes". We see the 9:02 Troy time. This local carried the B&M sleeper, besides local coaches.

The NY Central train Albany--Chicago was NYC 19, "Lake Shore Limited". Interestingly, it carried not only the sleeper leaving Boston North Station 3:50 via the B&M, but also one leaving Boston South Station at exactly the same time via the NYC's Boston and Albany. The B&A train also had a second sleeper to Chicago taken by NYC 17 "The Wolverine", leaving Albany 45 minutes earlier but arriving Chicago 15 minutes later. The B&A sleeper into 19 sat at Albany for 55 minutes (a tight 10 minutes into 17), while the B&M sleeper spent 17 minutes at Troy and 23 minutes at Albany. B&A coach passengers had to change at Albany as against two changes for the B&M coach passengers.

The Rutland train 56 advertised a connection south to New York, unlike the connection west for the "Minute Man". This could have meant a reasonable if unadvertised Boston-New York route via B&M, but the Rutland connection is shown as arriving Grand Central at a very late 4:45 a.m. The time leaving Albany is not shown, and only the NYC timetable reveals it to be 1:15 a.m., just 7 minutes shy of four hours at Albany! The only earlier connecting train south was the West Shore 12:30 a.m., which reached Weehawken 4:25 a.m. and foot of 42d St at 4:40 a.m., no big advantage over the Grand Central train unless a ferry ride under the stars sounds good; and the Grand Central train also offered sleepers.

Two other B&M trains connected at Troy for Albany, with waits of 15 and 20 minutes respectively. In 1934, the B&M sleeper (arriving Albany 9:10) is picked up by NYC 47 "The Detroiter" at Albany 9:43 and dropped at Buffalo, not a scheduled passenger stop for 47, where it is then picked up by 19 "Lake Shore Limited" about an hour later. The reason seems to be that 19 had to drop cars from New York to the Adirondacks at Utica; taking the B&M car at Buffalo is simpler than juggling the cars at Albany or Utica. However, coach passengers off the B&M and Troy local had to wait at Albany for 19, since 47 has no coaches, only pullmans! Thus the B&M's sleeper and coach passengers rode separate trains from Albany to Buffalo, but neither had to get out and change at Buffalo.

In 1940, all timetabled B&M passenger trains went via Troy. The trackage from Mechanicville to Rotterdam Junction was for freight service and it shows D&H trains as "scheduled".

Troy was essentially a passenger only route, except for one local freight a day.
Main interchange with D&H was Mechanicville and with NYC at Rotterdam Jct. There were thru freights from DeWitt (Syracuse) until the traffic left the B&M to run Conrail via Worcester. B&M also ran a train or two into Selkirk yard once a day; ran up to Rotterdam Jct, switched ends and went into Selkirk. They had several engines equipped with NYC style train control for this service.

What is "head-end" traffic?

Mail, express, baggage, newspapers and milk in cans, usually transported in
cars nearest the locomotive, are known to railroad men as "head-end" traffic.

What is the volume of United States mail handled by steam railroads?

It is estimated that 6,279,288,000 pounds of mail were handled by the Post
Office Department in the year ended June 30, 1941, of which it is estimated
over 5,800,000,000 pounds, or more than 92 per cent, were handled by
the railroads.

How many pieces of mail are handled by the Railway Mail Service
of the Post Office Department?

The Postmaster General reported that 17,419,-706,240 pieces of mail of
all classes, including redistributions, were handled by the Railway Mail
Service during the year ended June 30, 1941.

What proportion of United States postal service revenues goes to the
railroad for mail transportation?

For transporting United States mails during the year ended June 30, 1941,
the railroads received 14.6 per cent, or about one-seventh, of total
ordinary postal revenues. Ordinary postal revenues do not include
receipts from postal savings and post office money orders.
The above figures include payments for carrying parcel post and second
and third class mails, as well as first class letter mail on which the
postage is 3 cents or more. For carrying first class mail, the
railroads receive an average of about 1/5 of I cent per letter, or
approximately 1/15 of the postal revenues collected by the
government on this class of mail.

How many federal government employees are assigned to Railway Mail Service?

The personnel of the Railway Mail Service on June 30, 1941, consisted of
20,584 officers and employees, of whom 19,486 were postal clerks.

Can letters and other first-class United States mail be posted in any
standard railway mail car?

Yes, if bearing the proper postage. Each standard mail car, used for collecting
and distributing mail enroute, is equipped with two mail drops, one on
either side, and letters and other first-class mail deposited in these
drops receive prompt attention.

What was the cost of sending mail across the continent before the
introduction of railway transportation?

The Pony Express, inaugurated in the spring of 1860, first charged
$5.00 for each letter of one-half ounce or less. The charge was later
reduced to $2.50 a half ounce, and finally, in consideration of a
government subsidy, the price was reduced to $1.00 a half ounce.
These prices were in addition to the regular United States postage.

What is the extent of Railway Express Agency operations?

The Railway Express Agency, which provides the American people with express
service, conducts business through 23,000 offices and uses in its operations
more than 201,000 miles of railway lines, 21,000 miles of steamship lines,
41,000 miles of air lines, and 14,000 miles of motor-truck lines.
The Express Agency owns and operates a fleet of around 14,000 motor
trucks for the pick-up, transfer and delivery of express shipments.
Fifty-seven thousand persons are employed in the performance of its
far-flung transportation service. More than 172,000,000 separate shipments
were handled by the Express Agency in 1941. Although its principal
operations are in the United States, Railway Express Agency, through its
connections, provides patrons with international service.

What is the service of the Railway Express Agency?

With its co-ordinated system of fast railway, airway, steamship and
motor-truck service, the Railway Express Agency provides the American people
with speedy and dependable express transportation throughout the United States
and in foreign lands. The Agency handles a great diversity of traffic,
in packages, boxes, crates, cases, bags, cans, cages, cartons and other
containers, and in specially built or equipped cars. Its services include
the transportation of wild animals for zoos and circuses; birds, dogs,
cats and other family pets; race horses; fish; plants and flowers;
strawberries; motion picture films; hats; gowns; precious stones;
jewelry; musical instruments; furniture; clothing, shoes and an endless
variety of other articles, large and small, perishable and
non-perishable; fragile and unbreakable; animate and inanimate.
The Agency performs complete pickup and delivery service, collecting
shipments without extra charge from homes, offices, factories and other
places of business and delivering them to the doors of consignees in
important towns and cities in all parts of the country. In addition to
its own pick-up system, the Agency has an arrangement with the Western
Union Telegraph Company whereby express shipments are accepted at any
Western Union office or are called for by Western Union messengers at
no extra cost to the shipper.

Are express shipments moved in passenger trains?

For more than a century, express shipments have been carried in passenger
trains on the American railroads. The customary location of the express
car is behind the locomotive. Railway Express Agency traffic moves
in about 10,000 passenger trains daily. Many trains which handle express
shipments exclusively are operated between the larger cities at
passenger train speeds.

When were United States mails first carried by rail?

The first known instance of United States mail being transported by rail
occurred on the South Carolina Railroad, extending westward from
Charleston, S. C. in November, 1831. On or about January 1, 1832,
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began carrying mail between Baltimore and
Frederick, Md. Shortly after the opening of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
between Baltimore and Washington in 1835, a car was fitted with a compartment
for carrying United States mails between the two cities. The first cars
equipped especially for distributing and pouching mail in transit for
dispatch to connecting routes were put in service on the Hannibal & St.
Joseph Railroad (now part of the Burlington) in July, 1862.

What was the origin of railway express service in America?

William F. Harnden, pioneer passenger train conductor, after a few years in
the service of the Boston & Worcester Railroad (now a part of the New York
Central) conceived the idea of becoming a messenger for banking houses,
merchants and other business interests in New York and Boston. He entered
into a contract with the Boston & Providence Railroad (now the New York,
New Haven & Hartford) and a steamship plying between New York and Providence,
to carry on his messenger business over their lines. Starting on March 4, 1839,
with a large carpet-bag, Harnden traveled regularly between New York and
Boston, the world's first express messenger. His business grew rapidly;
a special package car was put into service; offices were opened in New York
and Boston; assistants were employed; the service was extended to
Philadelphia and other cities, until Harnden & Company became an
international institution. In the meantime many competitive enterprises
were started. Harnden died in 1845, but the express business which he
founded grew with the development of the railroads and the country.

Indianapolis Union Railway

The Indianapolis Union Railway Company succeeded in 1883 to the enterprise
inaugurated in 1853 by the Union Railway Company. The company operated
fourteen miles of track known as the Belt Railroad, which was double-tracked
and extended around the city, and also had a mile of track in the city,
connecting the Belt with the Union Passenger Station, which was also owned
by this company. The station was one of the finest in the United States,
had a train shed 300 x 650 feet, and had a handsome three-story brick
building surmounted by a lofty tower, which was a beautiful structure in
Romanesque architecture, used for offices and waiting rooms of the station.
Over one million freight cars were handled annually over the Belt Railroad.
It was the first switching railroad to be built in the country,
and transferred freight from factory switches to all roads.

In 1988 Conrail ceased operation of its line between Wellsboro Junction and Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, leaving only the line between Gang Mills (near Corning), New York, and Wellsboro, and making the name "Wellsboro Junction" something of an anachronism. With this abandonment, the remaining line became and continues to be the only railroad in Pennsylvania's Tioga County.

On December 31,1992, Conrail ceased operation between Gang Mills and Wellsboro.
So that freight service might be maintained, the line was purchased by
Growth Resources of Wellsboro (GROW) and began a new life as the
Wellsboro and Corning Railroad.
Tioga Central began operating passenger excursion trains over the Wellsboro and Corning in May, 1994.

In late 1978, Amtrak reopened Buffalo's Exchange Street Station after a $6 million program to restore service to Niagara Falls.
The carrier operated four daily trains each way through Buffalo--the Boston/New York-Chicago Lake Shore Limited
(which skips Exchange Street); the New York-Toronto Maple Leaf; and the New York-Niagara Falls Empire State Express and
Niagara Rainbow. Ownership of Central Terminal remained with Penn Central (through subsidiary Owasco River Railway),
which reorganized as a nonrail entity.

After several false starts, Central Terminal, offered at $1.2 million, was finally sold-in July 1979 to local businessman Anthony Fedele and Galesi Realty of Paterson, N.J., for $75,000! They planned a hotel/recreational/civic complex. But the tenants had left (Conrail the month before to offices in the downtown National Gypsum building) or were departing (Amtrak on October 28 to Depew Station in Cheektowaga to the east). Fifty years, 4 months, and 5 days after it opened, the Terminal was without passenger trains.

I've notice similar real estate transactions. The NYC and later PC used the Owasco River Ry, along with many other
older RRs it owned, to handle all their real estate.

When Penn Central conveyed much of its rail property to Conrail in 1976 there were
some segments, such as the Metro-North Hudson Line from MO to CP75 above
Poughkeepsie, that were not conveyed as they were subject to long term leases. Those
properties were conveyed to the Owasco River Railway, Inc. Thus Owasco is
the fee owner of the Hudson Line and the New York & Harlem RR is the owner of
the Harlem Line. Both, of course, are leased to MTA and operated/maintained by
Metro-North.

While PC could have retained the fee to the Hudson Line, subject to the MTA
lease, their management did not want to own any railroad property as they
planned to reorganize as a non-rail entity.

For one year, from 10-01-79 through 09-30-80, the line from Red Creek to Hannibal was operated by Ontario Midland.
There was only one active customer, Barker Chemical, a fertilizer dealer at Hannibal. At the end of the year, the two counties
involved (Cayuga and.....Oswego???) were not interested in participating in any subsidy and the line was abandoned.
The Owasco River RR, a "paper" company left over from NYC/LV days, was the sales agent for such segments.

Anyway, at one time, the Owasco River Railway was a real railroad in Auburn NY that was a local switching railroad
serving several industries along the Owasco River. The RR was controlled by the NY Central. They had their own power early
on eventually having the NYC supply its engines, most noteably the shroaded shays from New York City (also served on
the Genesee Falls Railway). In diesel years it was a small GE 70 ton centercab engine and then regular NYC power.
The road also provided interchange with the Lehigh Valley in Auburn.

Other railroads did the same thing. The Erie had used the old Avon, Geneseo & Mt. Morris RR to handle their
real estate transactions on their old line to Geneseo and Mt. Morris long after the branch was abandon.
It was called the AG&M Real Estate Co. I am currently looking for more information on this subject; please contact us.

A big "paper railroad" that still exists after everything around it went away
is the New York & Harlem Railroad.
It was chartered 1831, built a line from New York City to Chatham, then leased
to the New York Central in 1873 for 401 years. Funny thing, it still exists and
owns a lot of New York City real estate including Grand Central Terminal!

Maybrook yard coal tower unused in 1968.

ec-bp was established in 2005 as the advocate for lowering the barriers to the adoption of EDI, and our email newsletter has been published every month since that time. Our focus has expanded beyond EDI to encompas the full gamut of supply chain practices and technologies. In addition, our readership has grown to become the largest of any similarly focused publication, and has expanded to include more than 90,000 professionals involved in nearly every aspect of the supply chain.
Today’s supply chain is more than simple transport of EDI documents. The complexity of maintaining compliance with trading partners, managing the ever increasing amount of data, and analyzing that data to drive constant improvement in processes and service take supply chain professionals far beyond the basics of mapping EDI documents.

Our HAND TOOL WebSite is intended in aiding you to locate HAND TOOL suppliers.
You may search by product or by manufacturer. We add both products and manufacturers, so keep checking back.

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